Video: Shoveling snow off Palomar's Hale Telescope

A Hale and hearty sight ...

The observer became the observed on Sunday.

Scott Kardel went on top of the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory and took this videotape of a friend shoveling snow off the telescope's dome. The video was placed on YouTube, where it is quickly getting passed around.

The reflecting telescope, which went into service in 1949, is located about 5,500 feet above sea level and is widely used to study everything from quasars to planets beyond our own solar system.

Kardel frequently photographs the area in and around the Hale. Today, though, he was on top of the dome. He concludes the video by saying, "Quite a view, wouldn't you agree?"

We agree.

The National Weather Service says it has yet to get a report from the observatory on how much snow fell there over the past day or two. But we know that Mt. Laguna received more than 1 foot of snow, and about 5 inches of snow fell in Julian and at Pine Valley.